her daughter; she was unable even to imagine the real difficulties
which hindered her from taking advantage of the Restoration and forced
her to continue a life of solitude. Though families bury their
internal dissensions with the utmost care, enter behind the scenes,
and you will find in nearly all of them deep, incurable wounds, which
lessen the natural affections. Sometimes these wounds are given by
passions real and most affecting, rendered eternal by the dignity of
those who feel them; sometimes by latent hatreds which slowly freeze
the heart and dry all tears when the hour of parting comes. Tortured
yesterday and to-day, wounded by all, even by the suffering children
who were guiltless of the ills they endured, how could that poor soul
fail to love the one human being who did not strike her, who would
fain have built a wall of defence around her to guard her from storms,
from harsh contacts and cruel blows? Though I suffered from a
knowledge of these debates, there were moments when I was happy in the
sense that she rested upon my heart; for she told me of these new
troubles. Day by day I learned more fully the meaning of her words,
--"Love me as my aunt loved me."

"Have you no ambition?" the duchess said to me at dinner, with a stern
air.

"Madame," I replied, giving her a serious look, "I have enough in me
to conquer the world; but I am only twenty-one, and I am all alone."

She looked at her daughter with some astonishment. Evidently she
believed that Henriette had crushed my ambition in order to keep me
near her. The visit of Madame de Lenoncourt was a period of unrelieved
constraint. The countess begged me to be cautious; she was frightened
by the least kind word; to please her I wore the harness of deceit.